wallet.dat backup | Bitcointalksearch.org

DannyHamilton

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Activity: 3472

Merit: 4794

Quote from: mrugala on January 20, 2014, 04:28:07 PM

Quote from: DannyHamilton on January 19, 2014, 08:47:12 PM

Quote from: CR7xMarcelo on January 19, 2014, 06:41:01 PM

Lets say I have a wallet.dat backup, and I continue making transfers etc..
My pc crashes alot so the hdd could be damaged at some point.
If it would crash would i still have my coins since i saved the wallet.dat file earlier? Or do I have to make a backup every xamount of time

Assuming you are using Bitcoin-Qt, you should create regular backups.

And if I don't? Let's say I use MultiBit?

I don't think MultiBit has a wallet.dat file, but I don't think it uses deterministic addreses either. Therefore, you probably need to backup every time you create a new bitcoin address.

Each wallet behaves differently, if you are going to use a wallet, you should take the time to learn how it works and what is required.

mrugala

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Activity: 84

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Quote from: DannyHamilton on January 19, 2014, 08:47:12 PM

Quote from: CR7xMarcelo on January 19, 2014, 06:41:01 PM

Lets say I have a wallet.dat backup, and I continue making transfers etc..
My pc crashes alot so the hdd could be damaged at some point.
If it would crash would i still have my coins since i saved the wallet.dat file earlier? Or do I have to make a backup every xamount of time

Assuming you are using Bitcoin-Qt, you should create regular backups.

And if I don't? Let's say I use MultiBit?

DannyHamilton

legendary

Activity: 3472

Merit: 4794

Quote from: CR7xMarcelo on January 19, 2014, 06:41:01 PM

Lets say I have a wallet.dat backup, and I continue making transfers etc..
My pc crashes alot so the hdd could be damaged at some point.
If it would crash would i still have my coins since i saved the wallet.dat file earlier? Or do I have to make a backup every xamount of time

It depends on what wallet you are using.

Assuming you are using Bitcoin-Qt, you should create regular backups.

Bitcoin-Qt pre-generates 100 addresses that are included in your backup.

It then uses an address from that pool of 100 for change every time you send a transaction, and it uses an address from that pool of 100 every time you click the "New Address" button.

So, if you keep track of the number of times you click the "New Address" button, and you keep track of the number of transactions you send, then you'll need to create a new backup before the sum of those two numbers exceeds 100.

Since the wallet.dat file might be damaged when you back it up, it's a good idea to keep multiple recent backups. I generally suggest backing up every time the sum of transactions sent and addresses generated exceeds 25, and keeping copies of the 3 most recent backups.

CR7xMarcelo

member

Activity: 98

Merit: 10

Lets say I have a wallet.dat backup, and I continue making transfers etc..
My pc crashes alot so the hdd could be damaged at some point.
If it would crash would i still have my coins since i saved the wallet.dat file earlier? Or do I have to make a backup every xamount of time

Topic: wallet.dat backup (Read 581 times)